Page 102 of Break the Ice
“Why? That’s awful.”
Jayden’s large hand strokes down my braid. “It is, and that’s why I didn’t want you thinking about it.” He turns me back to him. “Eli asked me to take you out. He told you to go with me so he could rest. We did nothing wrong…”
There’s an unspokenDid we?that I can only shrug to.
All these feelings that have been sprouting in my chest flash through my head as his stare flits to my ears. The new piercings throb when he smiles.
“We’re friends.”
“Yeah,” I whisper back even if our closeness says otherwise. Even if his hands on my waist feel otherwise. “Friends.”
Friends.
CHAPTER 31
ELIJAH
Pain shoots from the raw cuts on the pads of my feet to my ankles. Throbbing with agony when I lock up.
Sucking down the sob ripping out of my chest, I focus on the burn it radiates in my lungs as I shuffle right into the corner and allow the water to beat down on me.
“Crying again, baby?”
I freeze when the door pulls open behind me.
The tiles are slippery with steam from my scalding shower. In the distance, voices boom in the room next door, smothered by the overwhelming, sickly sweet scent of men’s body wash and spray that’s turning my stomach.
My head is still swimming even though it feels like I’ve been in here for hours. I’m going to be sick again.
“Little pussy boy… D’you know what happens to pussies, Sylkes?” His hand grips the back of my neck, shoving me into the wall, beneath the hot spray.
Body wash rivulets from my hair, over my face. Stinging my eyes as I try to push back, but my hands slip.
Stop.Sucking in a lungful of soapy water, I choke on my yell.
Maybe it’s a scream with the way my throat rips raw. A garble of words I can’t quite think up with the sudden dark blankness. My heart hammers into my chest, warning me of the danger too late.
I can’t move.
I can’t scream.
Help me. Help me. Please.
All my pleas burn in silence. Quashed by the unshakeable weight at my back.
God, please.The soundless scream rips raw from my throat to my head. A garble of words that die into bleak blankness. My heart pounds. My body howls.
Stop.
Stop.
My head throbs. My ears ring.
Stop.
Stop.
Stop.
